Shopping Help

[etherial]

Thoughts on buying a new computer. What I need:

• a laptop model
• a full adult-sized keyboard
• a non-Vista operating system requiring one click or less to install
• the ability to run multiple web browsers at once (as well as a game or two)
• cheap (free) anti-virus protection
• DVD drive

I've only bought one computer before. That was easy: Go to apple.com, fill out the information for the educator's discount, buy a top-of-the-line model with all the upgrades. Unfortunately, I have not the budget for a top-of-the-line anything. So, any suggestions on sellers, manufacturers, and models?

Edit: I really do mean non-Vista. XP is a version of Windows I'd be willing to use. 7 seems to have all the usability of XP with all the pretty of Vista, but that's just my first impression. *nix is fine, and the one click is just a metaphor, but I remember the days when it took months to *nix working properly on a PC, and I want a guarantee that it'll be fully functional in half an hour.

Comments

[purple-dj.livejournal.com]

I've been very pleased with Asus laptops recently. The brand has been around for years as a parts maker for PC builders, but they've recently been pushing into the laptop space with complete systems.

They are very competitively priced but generally come with Windows 7 installed, unfortunately. Newegg carries quite a few of them, and you can sometimes find a smaller selection on sale at Best Buy or the like.

Even the cheapest laptop listed on the Newegg link should meet all of your requirements except perhaps gaming. And if you find any of the ones with the "GeForce GT" or "ATI Radeon", they should be able to do gaming as well.

[purple-dj.livejournal.com]

Nothing against Windows 7. I like it more than Vista. I just wasn't sure if your "no windows vista" was a general "no windows" complaint.

[purple-dj.livejournal.com]

Okay. Knowing that "one click" is an exaggeration, I second the recommendation that Ubuntu is the easiest to use and most likely to "just work" of all the Linux types out there. I'm not going to guarantee everything will work right away in 30 minutes, but I'll say you have a 95% chance of it being that way.

Of course, if you finish the install and first round of system updates and something still isn't working, just stop and go back to Windows or something.

In other words, when Ubuntu is working, which it most often does, it's effing brilliant and is as easy or easier to use than Windows. But when something isn't working, it's just as hard as Linux has always been and leads to this sort of fiasco.

[shadowravyn.livejournal.com]

This. As shogunhb says below, I have an Asus. Widows 7, I run Firefox and Opera at the same time always, and don't have a problem playing Civ 4 while both are running in the background.